Farmers pay Arizona city official with goat for outside job

PHOENIX, AZ(AP) — An Arizona city official making $107,000 a year resigned after an investigation found he used city workers for an outside job involving an attempt to secure irrigation water for farmers who paid him with a goat.

According to a report recently obtained by the Arizona Republic through a public-records request, a private investigator hired by the city of Surprise found that Frank Stevens had city workers prepare some of the organic farmers’ land for use as a demonstration site for a drip irrigation system that Stevens tried to get a company to provide as part of a proposed partnership with him.

Stevens resigned in February.

Stevens declined comment to the Republic.